Evidence Rating

Evidence rating is a process by which scientific evidence is used to support recommendations about clinical decisions. Evidence rating has become an expectation of multidisciplinary health care organizations.

AORN embarked on the journey towards writing its national guidelines using a systematic review of the evidence in 2012. At that time the tools used by AORN guideline authors were adapted from tools created by the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing (JH) and the Oncology Nurses Society (ONS). These adapted tools were an excellent place to begin the process of guideline development using a systematic review and have assisted AORN in creating its own evidence rating model and evidence appraisal tools. AORN has now applied the multiple lessons learned from this experience to revise and update these tools in order to create a new evidence rating model, hierarchy of evidence, and expanded appraisal tools.

The tools can be used by any nurse or student interested in evidence based practice and can be viewed and downloaded from the following links: